Originally Posted by
Melki
The origins of Euskera are surrounded by mystery. There are many controversial theories dividing the linguists.
-Some of them believe it's a surviving Paleolithic language. However, recent DNA studies have clearly shown that ancient Basques are more related to modern Basques than to the original hunters-gatherers (Cro-Magnon) who settled in the area in the Paleolithic times. That's why other linguists think that Euskera originated in Near-East before or after the Neolithic Revolution. Many clues seem to confirm this hypothesis.
-It's an agglutinative language, closer to ancient Egyptian, the Dravidian languages spoken in southern India, the Western African languages from Senegalese-Guinean subgroup, than to the Indo-European languages.
-Some researchers have linked Basque to the Northeast Caucasian languages (Chechen, Lezgian), Northwest (Abkhaz, Circassian), and South Caucasian/Kartvelian languages (Georgian, Laz) because like Basque, these idoms are ergative-absolutive languages (explaining what ii is exactly would be dull and complicated, unless you're a linguist, what I'm not.)
-Other scientists, basing their arguments on the similarites between some Berber languages (spoken in Morocco, Mauritania & the Canary Islands) and Basque, go so far as to say that the Basques are the descendants of Carthaginian deserter soldiers who left Hannibal's expedition. But this hypothesis is not credible, since there's no doubt that Euskaldunak inhabited the Basque Country before the 3rd Century B.C.
Yet, some anthropologists have pointed out the fact that Basque skulls are mesocephalic like the Imazighen, whereas Celtic head shapes are usually dolichocephalic and Iberian are brachycephalic.
However, despite all these controversies around the Basque language, what remains certain is that Basque greatly influenced the Castilian language.
Originally, the sound /v/ didn't exist in Basque, and it progressively disappeared in Castilian too, eventually merging with /b/. That's the reason why Spaniards pronounce the letters "b" and "v" the same way.
-Old Basque lacked /f/ but had an aspirated /h/ instead. Due to the influence of Euskera, /f/ was progressively changed into /h/ in Castillan. But the original aspirated /h/ evolved into a silent /h/. That's how "filo" became "hilo", fierro" = "hierro", "farina" = "harina", "fablar" ("falar" in Portuguese) became "hablar", "facer" (Portuguese = "fazer") -> "hacer"...
The Aragonese name Fernando was traditionally Hernando in Castilian.
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